Car lost all electrical while driving

RedFish said:

the connector before/at fusible link is also suspect.

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Had power at battery and relay. Power stopped at fusible link. Disconnected link and cleaned both ends the best I could and reattached. Lights came on. Made sure car was in neutral and turned the key and she fired right up. Success for now. Thanks for all the help and ideas.

gtgto said:

Had power at battery and relay. Power stopped at fusible link. Disconnected link and cleaned both ends the best I could and reattached. Lights came on. Made sure car was in neutral and turned the key and she fired right up. Success for now. Thanks for all the help and ideas.

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I am having a similar issue which just started popping up. The car is running great. About 2 months ago I took it on a long trip, and it ran perfect the wHole way. Got to my destination , got up the next morning to cruise, went to start it and nothing - no power to anything. Had a similar thing during build and it turned out to be loose ignition wire to switch, so figuring it was the same thing I pushed it into switch and everything came back to life (I have complete new wiring - Ron Francis Access24/7).

Fast forward to yesterday - I’m about 1800 miles later, interstate driving (but only for about 20 minutes) no problems. But it is really hot out. Pull over to gas up, go to start up - click and then nothing. Fiddle around with the back of the ignition switch like before - nothing. Under the hood the battery cables look good, engine ground looks good, coil connections look good. Alternator (new last year) - i wiggled the main power connection (thick red cable) at the alternator and also at other end (where it connects to starter). Get back in and it fires right up. Huh? Don’t know exactly what happened, but what the hell i drove home and all seems well. About 3 hours later went out to start up again, got power to everything when I turned the switch, a click and then nothing. Repeated the same process as before, and eventually everything came back to life, she fired up and drove great again. I’m planning on attacking this problem in the next few days and here’s my plan: (1) check wire connections to starter (heat related issue there?); (2) replace voltage regulator. After that, I’m thinking replace starter (it is original with about 120K on it now). I will let you know how it goes and hopefully my experience/fix attempts will help you with yours.

Sorry to be so wordy but I thought the detail might help.

mflynn said:

Alternator (new last year) - i wiggled the main power connection (thick red cable) at the alternator and also at other end (where it connects to starter). Get back in and it fires right up. Huh?

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You shouldn't be able to wiggle either one. If the attaching stud is loose on the starter is loose, then it sure won't have the contact acrea to carry the 200 amps needed.

Mattax said:

You shouldn't be able to wiggle either one. If the attaching stud is loose on the starter is loose, then it sure won't have the contact acrea to carry the 200 amps needed.

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That’s what I thought too. But...

Got under the hood last night. Cleaned up battery ground to engine block and battery terminals (pretty new/clean so not much there). Then got under the car - starter stud was loose and the attaching nut was also loose, and lots of gunk on the connectors. Cleaned them all up and tightened the stud back up, and did the same to the smaller stud and wire (to coil i’m Pretty sure). That seems to have fixed my loss of power on ignition problem. But...

During test drive, voltmeter gauge was pulsing, same for gauge lights (tach anyway) and speakers going on and off intermittently. So today I changed the voltage regulator (labeled Relay on the Duralast box - I think it’s the same thing) and that fixed the pulsing problem.

So in sum, my lost power fix was at the starter studs and the connections there. Seems like once everything tightened up it was sending too much voltage for the old regulator to handle so a new one saved the day. Hope that makes sense and helps out anyone else who encounters this problem!

This just happened to me today... after an engine install this spring. I still have mostly original wiring. My case, however... car fired right back up on the side of the road (without opening the hood, or touching a thing) after about 30 seconds, and didn’t happen again for the rest of the cruise.

I’ll be looking at all of these possibilities, and after reading this, I’ll know to check a handful of things before I even try to restart... if I can’t find the issue before going back on the road.

This also prompts me to finally put together my on-the-Road-kit.

The next time I buy an old car I am going to order all the harnesses and do it all at once right up front. This would have saved me countless hours of chasing electrical gremlins. A little bit back all the harnesses for a 69 cuda were only about $600-700. If you divide that by the hours I have spent I have probably made about $2 an hour....

JAndrea said:

This just happened to me today... after an engine install this spring. I still have mostly original wiring. My case, however... car fired right back up on the side of the road (without opening the hood, or touching a thing) after about 30 seconds, and didn’t happen again for the rest of the cruise.

I’ll be looking at all of these possibilities, and after reading this, I’ll know to check a handful of things before I even try to restart... if I can’t find the issue before going back on the road.

This also prompts me to finally put together my on-the-Road-kit.

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Reaad through this post too. It will help you identify if and where power is being lost.
Intermittent total loss of electrical

I've had a few other odd ones - harder to diagnose. Winter fuel in the summer time can cause something similar - although often there are other symptoms that are good clues that its fuel not electrical. And on my late model ('85) Grand wagoneer, the ford style coil connector would rattle just loose enough...

Mike69cuda said:

The next time I buy an old car I am going to order all the harnesses and do it all at once right up front. This would have saved me countless hours of chasing electrical gremlins. A little bit back all the harnesses for a 69 cuda were only about $600-700. If you divide that by the hours I have spent I have probably made about $2 an hour....

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Mike. I bought a new engine harness from YO in the first 10 years I owned the '67 and I don't regret it.
BUT that harness was no guarentee. I've now replaced several terminals and connectors on it.
And now, finally, replacing the ignition switch which I've known for at least a year or two had some resistance in run....

Mattax said:

Mike. I bought a new engine harness from YO in the first 10 years I owned the '67 and I don't regret it.
BUT that harness was no guarentee. I've now replaced several terminals and connectors on it. View attachment 1715556132
And now, finally, replacing the ignition switch which I've known for at least a year or two had some resistance in run....

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Yep, agreed, but likely to reduce a lot of issues. Maybe that’s the best we can hope for on these old cars - try and shift the odds in our favor....

Saturday night after Mopar event on a way home it exact same thing it went dead after green light as I go then sudden dead and try to start Nana and wiggles the wires where the fusage red wired lights works and all it still turn over but will not fired up I am currently stumbed.

You have got to learn to troubleshoot. I don't know what you "have" what you "need:"

1....Multimeter and 12V test lamp
2....Some alligator clip leads. If you have the battery in the trunk you need to make one about 20ft long for various tests
3....A shop manual you can access (cheap laptop?). Go to MyMopar and download a free service manual, and the aftermarket two page wiring diagrams. Each has their advantages
4....LEARN the basic power distro, as laid out in the MAD electrical article here:

Catalog

This diagram:



The above diagram is likely the most important thing you could learn for any of these cars. This simply lays out the major power distro in these girls, and shows the major failure points, which are

The battery, battery cables, fuse link, RED wire going through the BULKHEAD CONNECTOR, the ammeter, (and the ammeter wire terminals), the BLACK ammeter wire WELDED SPLICE, and back out the BULKHEAD CONNECTOR to the alternator

This also "touches" on the IGNITION SWITCH which feeds the IGN1 "run" power back out through the bulkhead connector

Follow the path from the main battery PLUS post. That path through the bulkhead, through the ammeter, and up through the welded splice---any failure in that path will cause complete power loss........no lights of any kind, and no crank

Your trouble could be any one of the above list or even a combo of 2 or 3 or?? of them

FRANKLY because of your former description, I would NOT WASTE ANY TIME I would pull the bulkhead connector apart and clean / inspect/ repair

We need a hijack emoji.....

This is just a shot in the dark, but I had a similar problem. It turned out to be the electronic ignition module quit working when it was hot sometimes. They are only about $20, and it wouldn’t hurt to have a spare in the trunk anyway, even if it is not the issue.

JAndrea said:

This just happened to me today... after an engine install this spring. I still have mostly original wiring. My case, however... car fired right back up on the side of the road (without opening the hood, or touching a thing) after about 30 seconds, and didn’t happen again for the rest of the cruise.

I’ll be looking at all of these possibilities, and after reading this, I’ll know to check a handful of things before I even try to restart... if I can’t find the issue before going back on the road.

This also prompts me to finally put together my on-the-Road-kit.

Click to expand...

Think I figured out what happened here. In doing the ammeter bypass last weekend, the main fusible link fell apart upon snipping the wire!

Project

JAndrea said:

Think I figured out what happened here. In doing the ammeter bypass last weekend, the main fusible link fell apart upon snipping the wire!

Project

View attachment 1715696334

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There's a good example of why car manufacturers used open barrel terminals with housings that locked together. A lot less mechanical failures like that.

If you're doing the MAD bypass, know that now you are putting all of the power, all of the time, through that fusible link. Its one of the drawbacks of their method.

Mattax said:

There's a good example of why car manufacturers used open barrel terminals with housings that locked together. A lot less mechanical failures like that.

If you're doing the MAD bypass, know that now you are putting all of the power, all of the time, through that fusible link. Its one of the drawbacks of their method.

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I do remember seeing some drawbacks. I’ll do a little more digging.